Birobidzhan

1934 saw the founding of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, an independent communist state for Jews in a remote corner of Russia near the Chinese border. Its capital was Birobidzhan, and its language Yiddish. Communist Jews from all over the world were encouraged to move there. Did Jewish pioneers come up with this idea and get approval from Stalin, or did the Russian totalitarian leader have his own reasons for supporting this migration? The Belgian director Guy-Marc Hinant went to Birobidzhan to explore this remarkable slice of history. What’s left of Jewish culture there, and who’s living in the city nowadays? Hinant focuses on some now-elderly people whose parents settled in Birobidzhan. Their memories tell a story that’s very different from the scenes shot in the city as it is today. The modern population is finding it difficult to preserve their traditional practices and their Yiddish – despite the language lessons for young people and the celebration of Jewish holidays. Intercut shots of bleak landscapes reveal an empty region crisscrossed at high speed by improbably long freight trains. The soundtrack of old Yiddish songs – played on records and sung directly into the camera – forms a melancholy musical echo of times past.